Step One - the invitation to tender

The first section to be completed is the invitation to tender (ITT). This should invite tenders for a single contract covering the provision of an EDRM or Enterprise Content Management solution and associated supplier services for the whole education organisation or a defined subset of the institution. It should make it clear that the solution will be implemented in phases and that there will be some review points and potential termination points defined. Failure to meet certain defined criteria at those points could result in the termination of the contract by either party.

Format of responses

The ITT should define the format and content of responses/tenders. Generally you should ask the suppliers to respond to each section of the ITT and Statement Of Requirements in order and maintain the strict numbering used in the ITT and SOR documents. This makes it easier to check whether the supplier has replied to every requirement. This means you have to uniquely identify each paragraph and many institutions opt to provide a compliance grid which suppliers need to complete. This grid lists every paragraph in the ITT and Statement of Requirements and indicates whether it is a mandatory; highly desirable or desirable requirement and then invites the supplier to respond with a Yes/No or requires bespoke work answer and comments in a comments column.

When comparing 6 or 8 responses to a detailed document it is vital to impose rules to avoid ambiguity. In particular you should provide very clear instructions on how you want the supplier to respond to the price schedule so you have a clear set of costs and can compare the responses.

The ITT will request details of the bidding parties. You need to be clear who the prime contractor is in the event of a joint bid.

Responsibility for costs

You should make it clear that you take no responsibility for costs incurred by suppliers in responding to the tender and you need to specify clearly what format the tender should be provided in, who it should be sent to at what address and what the final delivery date and time is. Clarify that tenders delivered after that time and date will be returned unopened.